Winning Wisdom

At only 27 years old, Gavin Griffin already holds one of the most impressive collections of poker's most prestigious titles: World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour championships.

Now, Card Player is giving its readers a chance to send questions directly to the poker prodigy.

Poker fans can send Griffin their questions to [email protected]. The questions can be about anything from poker strategy to his opinions on certain aspects of poker or his life as a poker pro traveling the circuit. The best questions will be answered by Griffin and published in Card Player. If your question makes it into print, we'll send you a free Card Player T-shirt.

Playing Only Tournaments for a Living

Gavin:

I was watching an interview on Card Player TV with Phil Hellmuth. In the interview, he mentioned that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to support a family by playing only tournaments, and that cash games are a part of every poker player's life. Earlier, I watched an interview with Scotty Nguyen, and he said that he hasn't played a cash game in two years, and yet he manages to support himself and his family. I'm curious, can someone make a living by playing only tournaments (both main events and prelims), or are cash games also necessary for success? How much time do you personally invest in tournaments and cash games? Thanks a lot, and good luck at the World Series of Poker!

-- Phil

Hi, Phil:

It seems odd that Phil H. mentioned that cash games are a part of every poker player's life, since he doesn't seem to play too many cash games. For the most part, Phil does a pretty good job of supporting his family through tournament winnings and endorsements. In this day and age, if you can get some good endorsement contracts, you don't necessarily have to grind it out in the cash games to be a successful poker player. You can earn money from other things besides poker, and that's a good thing. Now, it would be nice if the casinos and television networks started kicking back into prize pools so that the players wouldn't have to pay juice anymore, and the advertising dollars would go somewhere other than into corporate pockets.

As for me, I like to play some cash games when they are good. I'm usually playing $30-$60 triple draw on Stars, or if I'm playing live, I'll play $150-$300 and higher mixed games. I find triple draw to be really interesting, and am looking forward to the triple-draw tournament at the WSOP this year. It may not be the easiest field ever assembled, but I'm sure that I will have a good time and hopefully will go deep in that tournament.

Countering an Aggressive Player

Hi, Gavin:

I know that in tournaments, aggressive players really like to step it up on the money bubble and the final-table bubble. If the aggressive player at the table happens to be a seasoned pro, it is very difficult for me to accumulate chips, especially if he/she has position on me. Even though poker is situational, is there a fundamental strategy that you have to fight the aggressive player without risking too many chips, or do you just prefer to get out of the way? Thanks a lot, and good luck at the WSOP!

-- Phil

Hi, Phil:

Apparently this is the day of the Phils. Well, this is something that is discussed in a few books, one of the key ones being Kill Phil by Lee Nelson and Blair Rodman. When a good player is abusing the bubble at your table, there are a few things you can do. The best way to counter this style is to push back and not be afraid of playing big pots on the bubble. If this goes against your style, you probably should get out of the way and hope to make the money before getting a lot of chips in the pot. The villain in these situations will almost always continue to push until he meets resistance, and sometimes he will continue to push even after that. It's a very effective strategy to accumulate chips, especially at the WSOP, where the mystique of cashing in a WSOP event adds to the bubble factor.

You need to be aware of what your opponent is trying to accomplish by bullying you, and you need to implement a counter-strategy. Namely, you need to pick a hand, go with it, and not be afraid to go broke on the bubble. Good luck.

When You're Not Playing Your Best

I know that this is a departure from my usual format, but I've just busted out of yet another World Series event, and there is something I would like to discuss in this last section of my column.

After busting out of the heads-up world championship in the quarterfinals, I decided to take a few days off. I was frustrated and tired of poker, so I headed to California to work on my new house. Kristen and I bought some things, had some furniture delivered, cleaned, cooked, and so on. We invited company to our house for the first time, and it was a good weekend. I was feeling happy and relaxed, and decided to return to Vegas for some more action at the WSOP.

I decided that playing in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event sounded like fun. I arrived in Vegas at the Rio at around 12:15 p.m., bought in, and was seated at a good table that was doing a lot of gambling. I realized early on in the tournament that I wasn't playing my best game, but I managed to accumulate a lot of chips anyway. Sometimes when I'm not playing well, it's much easier to accumulate chips. I went a little deeper in rebuys than I wanted, but I needed only to cash to make money, so I wasn't in too badly. With a mountain of chips in front of me, I could have locked them up and coasted to the money. This is not something I usually do, but it certainly is something of which I'm capable. This was probably the correct course of action. There was only a little bit of time left in the day, and I wasn't playing well, so why not just back off and make it to the next day with a nice stack and a clear head? I needed to bring my other gears back again so that my game would be a bit more well-rounded.

There is a lesson in this for everyone, I think. When you're not playing your best and you know it, tighten up, play your A-B-C game, and grind it out. Good luck!